Conventional tires in use today of relatively large size installed on small trucks and larger vehicles such as tractor-trailers, earth moving equipment and the like utilize a construction unlike those found in ordinary passenger vehicles. Such large tires particularly those of the tube type are installed on a wheel provided with a side ring and a lock ring which may be either of the split lock ring type or of a two piece construction. Such lock rings serve to securely retain the tire on the wheel. As all such large tube type tires must be repaired from time to time due to flats and the like, the common procedure is to deflate the tire, remove the tire side ring and lock ring from the wheel following which the tire is repaired. When repair has been completed, it is, of course, necessary to replace the tire in the deflated condition on the wheel together with the side ring and lock ring, the lock ring being the last part installed and positively seated on the wheel as carefully as possible. In the last step, the tire is inflated or "aired" and under present day requirements, which have become virtually mandatory, the tire to be inflated must be placed in a "safety cage" during the inflation operation.
The use of such a safety cage is required as during the inflation operation wherein pressures may reach 60 to 120 psi, it is not uncommon for the lock ring to be only partially seated with the result that as the inflation proceeds, an explosion of the tire and wheel parts may occur so that the parts are propelled at high velocity with resulting injury and even death to personnel in the area. To reduce the likelihood of such an explosion, the common practice is to strike portions of the lock ring which is not positively seated during the inflation operation with a hammer wielded by the operator who supposedly carefully observes the tire and lock ring during the inflation operation. Even with such meticulous attention to the tire and wheel during the inflation operation, it is still not uncommon for an explosion to occur and the propelled parts are retained within the cage avoiding injury to the operator.
Present day safety cages are characterized by many limitations. The common type of such safety cage is the "croquet hoop" type in which a plurality of vertically extending, hoop shaped members are arranged in side-by-side relationship on a base plate in which the tire and wheel are supported during the inflation operation. Such present day cage construction makes it extremely difficult for the operator to reach unseated portions of the lock ring since only vertical slots are provided by the hoop members making the swinging of the hammer by the operator extremely awkward. Furthermore, since the tire is connected by means of a hose to an associated source of pressurized air during the inflation operation, rotation of the tire for access to various unseated portions of the lock ring is difficult particularly when the tire must be rotated with the air hose connected thereto. Furthermore, not only is it difficult to properly support the tire within the safety cage but manual rotation of the tire is awkward and difficult.